Non humanoid robots are already in warehouses in some varying capacity. Humanoid robots aren't really versatile enough to be general purpose but I suppose they're a possibility in the future. All I can imagine is that if they're made safe enough to be around other humans they'll have to be quite dumb in a sense (except for the ones around the war industry)
End of the decade is my prediction. We are there GPT Astra shows signs of it. Give it a few more generations. Now if AI robot with compute onboard the robot, that might be multiple decades away, I don’t see compute becoming that abundant and small anytime soon
Wow, the way this site scrolls and pollutes the browser history is pretty terrible! I gave up trying to go back and just closed it and started a new tab
I love the idea of robot helpers but I don't love the idea of putting cameras all over my house and having ad companies surveil my intimate space.
I do not think people are even recognizing the security ramifications of these devices. A picture of your key is enough to replicate it[0], and yet we're just going to put these devices everywhere? LLMs have been pretty easy to jailbreak too, you think thieves aren't just going to get these robots to open the doors for them? Or what about governments? Even if you trust your government now, will you trust them with data where they can literally see everything you do and say? That's well beyond 1984. Or just what about what we see from top labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, or even Google and Apple? These trillion dollar companies are not showing themselves to be good at protecting data. Obviously some better than others, but this is a whole new level of intimacy with the data they'll get. Everyone is pissed at Flock, and you want to put mobile Flock in your house?
No thanks, it isn't worth trading all that for not having to load up the dish washer and cook my own meals.
I can't believe these discussions aren't more common.
I also don't like the idea of putting cameras all over my house and having ad companies surveil my intimate space, and I also don't like to add further things that require electrical power, and/or that make noise, etc. This is in addition to the security ramifications that you describe and that you don't describe, and other issues.
People also underestimate how dangerous these humanoid robots are. If we comply with the OSHA standards, we would need to place these robots in an enclosure with distance monitoring.
Mind you, because contemporary humanoid robots do not even have an e-stop. It’s a solution searching for a problem and blood.
What format is this post in? One or even half a line per image. Why? It's like watching those short form video content but in text format. Is this for getting more scroll depth?
The purpose of building humanoid robots is actually very simple: we want machines to feel lively and familiar.
We are not the best creatures at performing every possible job, yet we are so interested in building humanoid robots. Instead, we could build specialized robots for each job and create ways for them to integrate seamlessly into an ecosystem that includes humans and other robots.
A cooking robot, for example, doesn't necessarily need to look humanoid. It could be a completely autonomous kitchen with no hands at all, while another robot could have some kind of interface or mechanism that allows it to integrate with and interact with the kitchen.
I appreciate that the site also shows examples of this approach. But even then, we keep building humanoid robots because, deep down, they feel more alive. Seeing something that looks like a person working gives us a strange sense of joy and satisfaction.
Funny how much of robotics is driven not just by what is practical, but by what feels alive to us.
I think it's more than that for two reasons: 1) Humanoid robots are general-purpose, which is great in domains where it's not economical to design specialized robots and 2) they are also drop-in replacements for humans. If you have a kitchen already, you can just drop in a humanoid robot without having to redesign your whole kitchen, which makes adoption much easier.
What sort of robot would you need to load and unload a dishwasher, collecting and storing the crockery etc.? What sort of robot would you need to load and unload the laundry, fold and store the clothes?
The biggest reason for humanoid robots is that they will need to function in environments designed for humans and used by humans, sometimes even alongside the robots.
This is very different to something like a factory or even a warehouse, that can be designed to be used almost exclusively by the robots.
I stopped using my Roborock because it was such a pain to move everything out of the way (chairs etc.) so it could do a good job. Once I had a toddler, it was basically impossible to use.
Given that this is a much simpler problem than a fully humanoid robot, I'm not going to hold my breath for those.
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[ 6.0 ms ] story [ 324 ms ] threadI do not think people are even recognizing the security ramifications of these devices. A picture of your key is enough to replicate it[0], and yet we're just going to put these devices everywhere? LLMs have been pretty easy to jailbreak too, you think thieves aren't just going to get these robots to open the doors for them? Or what about governments? Even if you trust your government now, will you trust them with data where they can literally see everything you do and say? That's well beyond 1984. Or just what about what we see from top labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, or even Google and Apple? These trillion dollar companies are not showing themselves to be good at protecting data. Obviously some better than others, but this is a whole new level of intimacy with the data they'll get. Everyone is pissed at Flock, and you want to put mobile Flock in your house?
No thanks, it isn't worth trading all that for not having to load up the dish washer and cook my own meals.
I can't believe these discussions aren't more common.
[0] https://github.com/makalin/KeyForge3D
I mean, the OP's argument is concerning negative effects that may be hidden or obscured by the suppliers of such robots.
Your comment regarding their use of electricity and that they make noise - well that's kind of obvious... Nobody is forcing you to buy these robots.
Mind you, because contemporary humanoid robots do not even have an e-stop. It’s a solution searching for a problem and blood.
We are not the best creatures at performing every possible job, yet we are so interested in building humanoid robots. Instead, we could build specialized robots for each job and create ways for them to integrate seamlessly into an ecosystem that includes humans and other robots.
A cooking robot, for example, doesn't necessarily need to look humanoid. It could be a completely autonomous kitchen with no hands at all, while another robot could have some kind of interface or mechanism that allows it to integrate with and interact with the kitchen.
I appreciate that the site also shows examples of this approach. But even then, we keep building humanoid robots because, deep down, they feel more alive. Seeing something that looks like a person working gives us a strange sense of joy and satisfaction.
Funny how much of robotics is driven not just by what is practical, but by what feels alive to us.
The biggest reason for humanoid robots is that they will need to function in environments designed for humans and used by humans, sometimes even alongside the robots.
This is very different to something like a factory or even a warehouse, that can be designed to be used almost exclusively by the robots.
Given that this is a much simpler problem than a fully humanoid robot, I'm not going to hold my breath for those.